Harry Potter Fans Sound Off About The Most Egregious Book Omissions In The Deathly Hallows Films
The "Harry Potter" movies are, of course, adaptations of the mega-popular books by controversial author J.K. Rowling. And as with all adaptations, certain things were altered or omitted entirely for the story to fit into a cinematic landscape. But even with that in mind, the films are remarkably faithful to the overall narrative from the books. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) still begin as wide-eyed children entering a massive magical world and still finish having defeated the evil Lord Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle (Ralph Fiennes), once and for all.
But that doesn't mean they're perfect adaptations either. Certain side stories, character motivations, and subplots were completely removed from the movies to save time, and naturally, not every single fan was pleased with those creative decisions. The producers attempted to circumvent this issue with the last book of the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," by splitting it into two movies, and while this definitely helped make the final "Harry Potter" story more epic in nature, it still didn't quite solve that fundamental issue of leaving things out. And some fans have some pretty big gripes with the two "Deathly Hallows" movies.
Harry Potter fans are mad that Dumbledore's backstory was removed
Over on Reddit, u/Regular_Bee_5605 complained that the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" movies left out way too much information when it came to Professor Dumbledore's (Michael Gambon) richly detailed backstory. They believe that it was a baffling choice, especially considering that two movies have the potential to fit more story in, including the key details that add so much context to the late wizard's younger mindset. "I mean, the whole backstory with his family, anti-[M]uggle past, Grindlewald [sic] and the Hallows, was such a major plot point of the book," they said. "But the movies literally ignored it entirely, despite having 2 of them to give ample time to cover the book properly."
Other users used the post as an opportunity to complain about elements that were left out of the other movies. Redditor u/Bearsona09 wasn't surprised by Dumbledore's lack of backstory considering that key details about Tom Riddle's life had been left out too. "They also cut out the backstory of Tom Riddle which [was] kinda crucial for the story so... it's only fair," they said. Redditor u/volanger agreed and took the complaint a step further, believing the lack of Riddle backstory actually hurt the logic of the hunt for Horcruxes in the "Deathly Hallows" films.
It's likely that the omission came down to budgetary reasons. After all, Luna Lovegood actor Evanna Lynch revealed on James and Oliver Phelps' (Fred and George Weasley) podcast, "Normal Not Normal," that Dumbledore's funeral wasn't included in the sixth movie for that very reason. Considering that the final book was already being split into two films with a ton of content to cover and a massive budget, the reasons for not covering the powerful wizard's backstory could very well have been similar.